The UK’s largest international contemporary art prize launched its biennial exhibition in Wales last month. For its 10th anniversary, Artes Mundi is venturing beyond its usual locale of Cardiff, presenting the work of seven artists in five venues across Wales, including the capital. It is also partnering with London's Bagri Foundation for the first time.
Artes Mundi stands out from other prizes in various ways. For one, it’s deliberately international in scope and aims to provide a space for “issues-based artists who have begun to emerge internationally,” says director Nigel Prince. Past winners include the now fully emerged Dineo Seshee Bopape, Prabhakar Pachpute, Ragnar Kjartansson, Theaster Gates, John Akomfrah, Teresa Margolles and Tania Bruguera.
For another, its shortlist begins life as an open call that anyone anywhere in the world (except students and very established artists) can respond to. The shortlisted artists – one of whom will be awarded the £40,000 ($50,520) prize in January – were selected by a jury of four curators and are showing a mix of new output, older works and pieces that have never been seen in the UK. Themes are timely and political, including land theft, displacement, extractivism, erasure, environmental colonialism, enforced migration, trauma and conflict.
Mounira Al Solh, who lives between Lebanon and the Netherlands, is showing new drawings of refugees from the Middle East as part of an continuing series of 500 portraits and conversations she embarked on in 2012 when the war in Syria broke out. “I was trying to welcome Syrian people and at the same time document what was happening in Lebanon,” she explains.
The use of lined yellow legal notepad paper from Lebanon as the canvas gives these images an accessible quality but is also a comment on the bureaucratic challenges refugees often face. “It’s also proof that we still make some good high-quality things in Lebanon despite most things being imported due to the crisis,” she says wryly. A richly embroidered tent in the middle of one room was inspired by her Syrian grandmother who was “obsessed with textiles”, and it was made “collectively” by women in Lebanon and the Netherlands.
Kurdish-born artist Rushdi Anwar, who is also showing at Cardiff’s National Museum, deals directly with the last 100 years of colonialism in the Middle East in his solo show. One room contains archive material and an old radio playing a medley of colonial speeches and propaganda from 1916 – when the Sykes-Picot Agreement was signed – to the present day.
“The maps for the region were drawn in a London office by people who didn’t understand the cultural context, the different ethnicities or the complexities,” says Anwar. “Humanity has been paying a price for this for far too long.”
A second room contains 12 haunting boxes each with a burnt photo of a destroyed church in Bashiqa, north-eastern Mosul. Disputed between the Kurdish and Iraqi governments, Mosul was formerly under British and French colonial rule and more recently looted and destroyed by ISIS.
Also in the National Museum, Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican artist Alia Farid’s oversized sculptural water vessels reflect on “the cultural and trade networks of the regions”. They reference the impact of extractive industries on the ecology and social fabric of Kuwait and southern Iraq, as well as the tradition of offering water in the desert. Some are based on vessels found in South Asia, others are more common in the Levant.
One, a jerry can with a religious logo, is based on a vessel that Farid’s grandmother brought back from Saudi Arabia. “What I liked about it is its intersectional quality”, says Farid, “how it speaks to the oil economy of Saudi Arabia but also about religious tourism”.
Two films by Farid reflect on these issues further and feature teenagers talking about their lives as they travel through marshland scarred by oil infrastructure and industrial waste.
In the north of Wales, in Llandudno’s Mostyn gallery, photos and a powerful three-channel film by Taloi Havini charts the disastrous environmental consequences of Australian copper mining in her native Bougainville in Papua New Guinea.
A couple of hours away, in Newtown’s Oriel Davies Gallery, Carolina Caycedo pays tribute to the many women environmental activists around the world – many of whom have been murdered – and links them back to Wales by showing original banners of the Greenham Common protesters in 1981. A quietly haunting film called Reciprocal Sacrifice features a salmon trying to return to its spawning ground in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho.
Vietnamese filmmaker Nguyen Trinh Thi’s contribution at Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea is a reprise of a haunting installation shown at Documenta Fifteen in Germany, and a potent reflection on memory, loss and trauma.
While Mexican artist Naomi Rincon Gallardo’s non-linear trilogy of films (produced in 2021, 2022 and 2023) showing at Cardiff’s Chapter venue are darkly funny and subversive theatrical pieces inspired by painted manuscripts from 16th century colonial Central Mexico, in which skeletal part-human, part-animal figures called tzitzimime appear. Their purpose, says Rincon Gallardo, is to challenge the “model of colonial binary thinking”.
“These voracious creatures of darkness were feared because they were sent to earth in moments of cosmic danger.”
Artes Mundi runs in various venues around Wales until February 25. The winner will be announced in January. More information is available at artesmundi.org
The five pillars of Islam
The five pillars of Islam
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The biog
Favourite book: Men are from Mars Women are from Venus
Favourite travel destination: Ooty, a hill station in South India
Hobbies: Cooking. Biryani, pepper crab are her signature dishes
Favourite place in UAE: Marjan Island
BRIEF SCORES
England 353 and 313-8 dec
(B Stokes 112, A Cook 88; M Morkel 3-70, K Rabada 3-85)
(J Bairstow 63, T Westley 59, J Root 50; K Maharaj 3-50)
South Africa 175 and 252
(T Bavuma 52; T Roland-Jones 5-57, J Anderson 3-25)
(D Elgar 136; M Ali 4-45, T Roland-Jones 3-72)
Result: England won by 239 runs
England lead four-match series 2-1
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
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Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Analysis
Maros Sefcovic is juggling multiple international trade agreement files, but his message was clear when he spoke to The National on Wednesday.
The EU-UAE bilateral trade deal will be finalised soon, he said. It is in everyone’s interests to do so. Both sides want to move quickly and are in alignment. He said the UAE is a very important partner for the EU. It’s full speed ahead - and with some lofty ambitions - on the road to a free trade agreement.
We also talked about US-EU tariffs. He answered that both sides need to talk more and more often, but he is prepared to defend Europe's position and said diplomacy should be a guiding principle through the current moment.
10 tips for entry-level job seekers
- Have an up-to-date, professional LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, set one up today. Avoid poor-quality profile pictures with distracting backgrounds. Include a professional summary and begin to grow your network.
- Keep track of the job trends in your sector through the news. Apply for job alerts at your dream organisations and the types of jobs you want – LinkedIn uses AI to share similar relevant jobs based on your selections.
- Double check that you’ve highlighted relevant skills on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
- For most entry-level jobs, your resume will first be filtered by an applicant tracking system for keywords. Look closely at the description of the job you are applying for and mirror the language as much as possible (while being honest and accurate about your skills and experience).
- Keep your CV professional and in a simple format – make sure you tailor your cover letter and application to the company and role.
- Go online and look for details on job specifications for your target position. Make a list of skills required and set yourself some learning goals to tick off all the necessary skills one by one.
- Don’t be afraid to reach outside your immediate friends and family to other acquaintances and let them know you are looking for new opportunities.
- Make sure you’ve set your LinkedIn profile to signal that you are “open to opportunities”. Also be sure to use LinkedIn to search for people who are still actively hiring by searching for those that have the headline “I’m hiring” or “We’re hiring” in their profile.
- Prepare for online interviews using mock interview tools. Even before landing interviews, it can be useful to start practising.
- Be professional and patient. Always be professional with whoever you are interacting with throughout your search process, this will be remembered. You need to be patient, dedicated and not give up on your search. Candidates need to make sure they are following up appropriately for roles they have applied.
Arda Atalay, head of Mena private sector at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Rudy Bier, managing partner of Kinetic Business Solutions and Ben Kinerman Daltrey, co-founder of KinFitz
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Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates
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